Out of Space

Chapter 62: Interrogation

Blake's footsteps echoed down the dimly lit hatchway, as he walked down into the deepest level of the ship. Exposed wall panels and empty compartments showed how the ship had been salvaged for parts and materials.

Blake climbed down the final set of stairs, his boots clanging against the metal plating of the decks and came upon a checkpoint manned by a marine and two security crew members.

"SIR!" The three men stood at attention and saluted to Blake.

"At ease," Blake returned the salutes. "The prisoner is awake?"

"Yes Sir!" the marine replied. "XO Ford and the others are all inside waiting for you sir!" He gave a nod and the security crew unlocked the hatch, spinning the door wheel manually to slide the hatch open.

"Carry on," Blake said before he ducked his head and entered the hatch into the lockup.

Cubes of clear armored glass separated evenly around the room. A small crowd could be seen gathered around a single glass cell.

Blake waved away the salutes of the two sentries on duty and walked between the rows of cells, passing by a cell where two goblins were squatting down and drawing on some bones.

He reached the group gathered before a glass cell, where a single elf dressed in an orange prisoner one piece sat on the small bolted bed staring blanking at the glass walls.

Gathered around the cell were XO Ford, Dr. Sharon, Princess Sherene, Lord General Joesph, Magister Thorn and a few aides.

"He can't see us?" Sherene asked Dr. Sharon. She waved her hand in front of the glass wall at the elf prisoner.

"No, he can't, these walls are optical armored glass, we can control what he sees. Now it's set to mirror mode, so he can't see us but we can see him."

Dr. Sharon explanation confused the elves, "What kind of sorcery is that? Is it even possible?"

"Captain, you're here just in time," Ford noticed Blake approaching. "We are about to start the interrogation."

A young man in an officer uniform saluted Blake, "Sir, I will start the interrogation, but I must stress one thing, we have no ways to verify any truth of what he says."

First Lieutenant Tavor first joined the crew as part of the intelligence department of the ship, before that he was a graduate from Naval Intelligence. This was his first assignment onboard a space-faring ship which ultimately landed him here.

So far he had been working on gathering as much information regarding this world as possible.

Standing before the glass wall, Lt Tavor pressed his palm against the glass, and a handprint scanner tallied his prints before a door slides open.

The prisoner worn a pair of leg cuffs and collar imbued with runic carvings jerked his head in surprise, seeing a hooman entering.

Tavor dragged a chair into the cell with him and the mirror door closed seamlessly without any traces.

Tavor set the chair down at the corner of the cell and set down, watching the elf without any expression.

Finally, after a while, the elf broke the silence, "What creature are you?"

"A human," Tavor replied in Common tongue. "Do you have a name?"

"Hoo-man?" The elf observed Tavor closely, "What manner of a creature is that?"

Tavor shrugged, ignoring his question. "Do you have a name?" He repeated his question.

"I am Sir Kean Uther, Lord of the Order of the Fall Knights," Kean stood up proudly, "You will release me or face the consequences!"

-----

The Goldrose elves recoiled backward upon hearing his name and title, causing Ford to ask, "Is he famous?"

"Fa-famous?" Joesph looked at Ford with his eyes widened in shock. "That's the Lord of Death, himself!"

"Wow? That title is so corny," Dr. Sharon quipped making Blake and Ford to choke back their laughter.

"He destroyed countless villages and towns, and even captured an entire city of hundreds of thousands people with just his Order of Knights!" Joesph explained.

-----

Tavor press his ear bead with his hand, listening to Joesph's description of Kean. "So you are the Lord of Death?" Tavor held his two fingers up making a quote gesture.

"Now you know what you are dealing with you low life, release me at once and I will spare your life!" The elf spoke in an arrogant bearing.

"Now, now, there's no hurry for that, tell me about the Empire? Tavor said. "I am very curious about your country."

"Why must I listen to you low life scum, you must be some kind of bastard breed, your ears are not even the same as people!" Kean raged, "Your mother got raped by goblins and had you as a bastard child?"

"Haha, no not really," Tavor smiled at the elf brightly in spite of all the insults that were thrown at him. "No seriously, I like to know more about the Empire."

"Why do you want to know more?" Kean's eyes narrowed in suspicion.

"Well," Tavor leans forward and whispered, "I am thinking of defecting to the Empire! But I want to know what kind of place the Empire is like and is it powerful enough to protect me from my own people!"

Tavor looks around the cell and spoke in a hushed whisper, "You know how powerful the spells my people have, so I want to know if the Empire has the power to stop those spells! If not why would I want to defect to your country!"

-----

"What? Is he serious? Sherene had her face almost glued to the glass walls, she spun around in anger, "You are his lord! Are you going to let him betray you?"

Blake held his hands up to calm the fuming princess, "Chill out! It's a ploy! Hush now and watch the show!"

-----

Kean looked at the hooman in surprise, maybe I can make use of this hooman to escape and also get the strange weapons and spells from him. "Why do you want to defect?"

"They sent me here to die, I want to stay alive so I can get my revenge!" Tavor said simply. "The enemy of my enemy is my friend."

"The enemy of my enemy is my friend?" Kean repeated those words back to himself. "I see," He nodded and smiled, "Very interesting!"

"So what can you offer and what do you want to know?" Kean sat back on his bed, leaning forward and whispering back.

"Spells that can one-shot dragons, those thundersticks you saw and how to create more of them," Tavor replied. "Also a way for you and me to escape to the Empire's borders."

"Good! You get me those, and I promise you under the name of the Order of the Fall Knights, I will grant you protection, lands and even a noble's title in the Empire!" Kean promised in a solemnly manner. "What do you want to know about the Empire?"

Now we are talking! Tavor thought gleefully to himself, dumbass. "Tell me about Empire armies? How strong are they?"

Unknown to the elf inside the cell, the humans had laced his food and drinks with a serum that relaxes the user brains, making them more talkative, like a weak form of a truth serum. It makes the user think he is in control of what he is saying and doing.

And so Kean happily answered all the questions asked by Tavor the whole day, thinking of how he managed to win over a hooman with powerful magic and weapons.

-----

Blake and the rest of the group filed out after three hours of hearing the prisoner talk about the Empire troop strengths and weakness.

Blake decided to call it a day and left the rest to Tavor and his intel department to handle everything.

Joesph caught up with Blake and said, "My Liege, if what he said was true, how are we about to withstand the full might of the Empire? A standing army of over half a million soldiers!"

Blake slowed his steps and said, "There is no point in worrying about that now, we have other worries that are present in front of us now, we can only solve those first and be able to focus our preparations against the empire."

Blake stopped and turned, forcing the whole group to stop. "Alright, here's a gag order! No one is to spread the word about the strength of the Empire's army. I know half a million is a lot, but we can't have panic spreading among the people! We will plan on how to handle this in a proper way, understand?"

"Aye, Captain." "By your order, my Liege."

"Good, now we have today's problems to resolve, let's get back to work. Once Lt Tavor finishes his interrogation, we will have a meeting on this." With that Blake and his team left the area.

-----

"Oh my god!" Petty Officer Ivan Pavlo froze as he heard what the Captain said. He was behind a hidden section of the hull, refilling his illegal makeshift still, making potato vodka, when he heard footsteps approaching.

Half a million of those crazy blue elves? And the Captain wants to fight them? He thought in a panic to himself, we are so fucked!